“PREPARATION IV - LEARNING TO RECEIVE”

“PREPARATION IV - LEARNING TO RECEIVE”

Text:

Romans 5:12-17

Isaiah 9:2-3,6-7

December 2007

How are we at receiving gifts? That may seem like an intriguing question to ask on the very

eve of the day upon which we will be giving and receiving Christmas presents. But I think it’s an

important question to ask. How are we at receiving gifts? Do we receive gifts for what they are,

and graciously accept them as something freely given? Or does our receiving a gift immediately

trigger a certain discomfort which isn’t relieved until we’ve properly reciprocated?

My dear mother was one of the most gift-giving women you’d ever want to meet. It always

gave her great satisfaction to shower gifts on others just for the sake of seeing the joy on their

faces when they tore off the wrapping paper or ripped open the bag or box. She was especially

thrilled by the big smiles on faces of little ones – grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and

nephews, the neighbor kid next door. And it used to drive my dad crazy when every Christmas,

my mom would spend way more money than they had in order to satisfy her love of giving gifts;

lots of gifts; gifts of value far greater than a lower middle-class income could support. When my

dad would start to grouse about the outrageous balance on the January credit card statements, my

mother would always reply by saying something like, “Lou, stop being such a scrooge.” Yes,

my mother was a legendary gift-giver.

But on the other side, she was not so great at receiving gifts. Don’t get me wrong. She

enjoyed tearing off the wrapping paper, or ripping open that bag or box as much as any of us do.

And she was always much appreciative. But then began her discomfort.......... Had she properly

reciprocated? Had she given a gift of equal or greater value in exchange for the one she’d

received?

I’ll always remember one particular Christmas Eve when we were exchanging gifts at my

grandmother’s house after candlelight service. It came time for my mother and my rather

well-to-do Aunt Eleanor to make their exchange. Aunt El opened her gift from my mom first,

and was delighted with her new set of Emeraude skin cream and dusting powder. Then it came

time for my mom to open her gift from her sister-in-law. I recall the look on her face – one I’d

seen many times before and since – as she removed from the small box something she’d always

wanted, but could never afford: a genuine Hummel figurine. I knew that look. It was one which

loudly said, “O Lord, how am I going to pay this back?” Of course, that was the furthest thing

from my Aunt Eleanor’s mind, but foremost in my mother’s. Had stores been open that Christmas

Eve, my father would have been following my mother around through the snow as she searched for

that additional gift which would have been on par with a Hummel figurine, and which she could

have told my Aunt Eleanor she had forgotten to wrap earlier.

So again, how are we at receiving gifts? Do we suffer that discomfort that we need to always

reciprocate to equal or greater value? Well, the news of this Christmas Eve is the coming of a gift

to us that we can not and need not try to reciprocate.

In the passage we just read from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul drives home the point that

God’s gift of grace is free. Although we were once entirely enslaved to the perpetual human

condition of sin – passed along from generation to generation – Jesus Christ comes as an entirely

free gift of God’s love; a Child born in innocence who would ultimately give up His life as a

payment for a sin debt which the wealthiest of us could not even hope to pay. Paul goes on to say

that because of this gift of God’s love and grace offered through the Babe at Bethlehem, we don’t

have to die in our trespasses. We can have a new beginning; a new life in Christ; a life which, in

spite of our very real spots and blemishes, stands blameless and acceptable before the Almighty; a

life which is ultimately glorified and never-ending. All this is a gift which has no equal. So how

are we at receiving this gift?

I tend to think that many Christians live with a gnawing inner discomfort that we are somehow

obligated to reciprocate the gift in kind; that God’s gift of Jesus Christ needs to be paid back in

full. So we find ourselves doing everything we can to earn that awesome gift of grace; to hold up

our end of some spiritual gift exchange. Maybe if we try to meet every requirement of God’s

Law...... Maybe if we give enough to the church, or to charities, or to the needy..... Maybe if we

work hard enough on being a “good person”...... Maybe then, we can successfully and permanently

put that discomfort to rest. Well, it’s a good thing to live in obedience to God’s Law, and to give

liberally, and to try to be a righteous, upstanding person. But what happens when we fall short, and

in one way or another, we all fall short? What happens when we can’t reciprocate God’s gift with

ours? Will we then live in a perpetual state of spiritual distress because we’ve received a Hummel,

but only gave Emeraude? Will guilt become our lifelong trip?

The good news of Christmas is that we don’t have to be in a tit-for-tat gift exchange with God.

All God does ask is for us to accept the gift for exactly what Christ is: freely given, no strings

attached. I don’t believe God expects a gift of equal value returned to God, because for one thing,

we don’t have such a gift to give. What God expects is that the free gift of love we receive through

the Christ Child we are to share with and pass along to others, looking ourselves for nothing in

return. When we seek to be obedient to God’s highest Law, which is the law of love; when we

are generous and charitable and sensitive to the needs of others; when we strive to be good

people, we’re not paying God back for God’s gift. Rather, we’re taking hold of, and utilizing, and

enjoying the gift we have freely received.

As we gather with family, friends and loved ones to open gifts, tonight, tomorrow, whenever,